This invention relates to coated particles suitable as a binding agent for a foodstuff which is dispersible in hot water and hot milk. This invention also relates to methods for preparing said coated particles.
Binding agents form the base of many dried food products such as sauces, soups and gravies. These dried food products usually contain other ingredients such as dried vegetables, meat extracts, yeast extracts, sugars, salt, fats, oils and the like, but it is the binding agent that usually gives the food, once rehydrated, its consistency and creamy sensory appeal. The idea is for the binding agent to simulate the roux used in traditional cooking.
Like roux, the binding agents are usually prepared from a starch material and a fat. The starch material is usually in the form of a flour of some sort, particularly wheat flour, although other flours are also used. Nowadays the fat is usually a hardened vegetable fat. The starch material and the fat are combined, often dehydrated, and then added to the remaining ingredients of the dried food product. However, severe problems have arisen in providing a binding agent which, when hot water and/or hot milk is stirred into the dried food product, does not result in lumping or clumping. If the product is intended to be an "instant food", it is important that the dried food product rehydrate rapidly upon the addition of hot water without lumping or clumping.
This problem was addressed in several documents of the prior including Great Britain Complete Patent Specification No 1 478 843, which relates to a process for producing a binding agent or thickener wherein particles of a farinaceous material are first mixed with a small amount of water to form aggregates which are subsequently coated with fat. The coating step is performed by mixing in a planetary mixer or a bowl chopper or, if liquid oils are involved, by spray coating.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,551 refers to a process for preparing a binding agent wherein a high melting point fat is heated to melt it and this is then mixed with a starch material, particularly wheat flour, to form a homogeneous dough. A small amount of water is then mixed in. The dough is then heated to a temperature above 90.degree. C. and maintained at the elevated temperature, under continuous mixing, until the moisture content reduces to below 7%. The dough is then cooled to room temperature and ground up to form a free-flowing, dehydrated binding agent. The binding agent is described to disperse readily in boiling water without the formation of lumps.
PCT Patent Application Publication No. WO 96/03893 describes a process for the preparation of binding agents for a foodstuff comprising a core of a farinaceous material coated with a layer of edible fat. The binding agents described therein which may be produced by a process not requiring the use of high temperatures are readily dispersible in water.
Although the binding agents of the prior art are readily dispersible in hot water, their dispersibility is not fully satisfactory in boiling milk, especially when low shear rates are used, as is the case with stirring with a spoon. In addition, in order to obtain a satisfactory dispersibility even in water, it was necessary to add high amounts of fat (&gt;40%). When such high concentrations of fat are used, however, the thickening properties of the resulting binding agent are lowered.